death penaltyhttp://www.readthehook.com/taxonomy/term/2283/all
enDeath to Death: June turn-out could help http://www.readthehook.com/109565/primary-power-cville-could-help-kill-death-penalty-june-turn-out
<p><strong>By David Swanson</strong></p>
<p>Most of the world's governments no longer use the death penalty. Among wealthy nations there is one exception remaining. The United States is among the top five killers in the world. Also in the top five: the recently "liberated" Iraq.</p>
<p>But most of the United States' 50 states no longer use the death penalty.&nbsp; There are 18 states that have abolished it&#8211; six in this new millennium, including Maryland earlier this month. Thirty-one states haven't used the death penalty in the past five years, 26 in the past 10 years, 17 in the past 40 years or more. A handful of Southern states&#8211; with Texas in the lead&#8211; do most of the killing.</p>
<p>The progress is slow and painful. Mississippi is right now having trouble deciding whether to spare a man just because he might be innocent.&nbsp; Maryland has perversely left five people waiting to be killed while banning the death penalty for any future cases. In Virginia, we hold second place behind Texas and continue to kill.</p>
<p>Virginia electrocuted a man named Robert Gleason in January. Since then, Texas has killed four men, Ohio two, and Florida, Oklahoma, and Georgia one each&#8211; all by lethal injection. Since 1973, there have been 141 exonerations from death row nationwide, including an innocent Virginian who came within days of being killed.</p>
<p>If you're convicted of killing a white person in Virginia, you're over three times more likely to receive the death penalty than if you kill a black person. The injustice and backwardness is staggering, but so is the lack of democracy. Only a third of Virginians tell pollsters they favor the death penalty.</p>
<p>The evil of the death penalty is not limited to the instances in which it is used&#8211; or to the corrosive influence it has on our culture. The death penalty primarily serves as a valuable chip in plea bargaining. Want someone to plead guilty, whether or not they actually are guilty? Threaten them with the death penalty. Who needs trials by jury (now used in under two percent of cases) when you have that kind of tool? And who has time for them when you've overloading the system by treating drug use as a crime?</p>
<p>So it is quite remarkable that a former commonwealth's attorney here in Charlottesville named Steve Deaton is campaigning for his old job with a commitment to never use or threaten to use the death penalty.</p>
<p>"I believe the death penalty is barbaric and has no place in modern Charlottesville courts," Deaton says, reversing the electoral wisdom of many decades, which firmly holds that candidates must assert that the death penalty is just and righteous and a deterrent to crime, even if the public thinks that's nonsense.</p>
<p>"I am calling for a moratorium on death penalty prosecutions," says Deaton. "During the past 20 years&#8211; that is, the term of the incumbent Commonwealth's Attorney&#8211; a number of capital murder charges have been brought against some people, almost all of them poor. Then the charge is often used as a bargaining chip to get the defendant to plead guilty to murder and accept a life sentence. This practice of using the threat of death to plea bargain is legal, and under current ethical standards, considered ethical. However, I find such a practice appalling."&nbsp;</p>
<p>It's appalling, of course, because the threat of death can elicit false confessions. One need look no further than the cases of Earl Washington, who was exonerated of capital murder in 2001, just weeks before his scheduled execution, or the Norfolk Four, who made false confessions to a July 1997 rape and murder under threat of death and received conditional pardons in 2009.</p>
<p>Many in Charlottesville oppose the death penalty. Deaton explains the very real possibility that it will nonetheless be employed here: "The notion that no Charlottesville jury will return a death sentence is misleading. In a capital murder case the jury has to be 'death qualified,' meaning that the jurors must believe in the death penalty. Such a jury is not representative of the community! Studies have shown that a 'death qualified jury' is also much more likely to convict."</p>
<p>Deaton points out that prosecutors have a great deal of discretion: "A prosecutor does not have to bring a capital murder charge. They have the option of bringing a regular murder charge instead."</p>
<p>If elected, Deaton intends to use the enormous discretion given to prosecutors to try to make punishments more reasonably fit crimes, including so-called drug crimes. While Charlottesville City Council failed by a vote of 3-2 in February to end jail time for possession of marijuana, Deaton intends to charge those possessing marijuana with a different charge: disorderly conduct. It's technically a higher level charge&#8211; a Class 1 misdemeanor&#8211; but it does not carry the draconian punishments of loss of driver's license, subjection to drug testing, ruined college acceptance and student loan prospects, immigration status, etc. "If a person makes a mistake, they should be punished. They shouldn't have their lives ruined," Deaton says.</p>
<p>Deaton aims to counter mass-incarceration, not add to it. "The state has built a new $100 million prison in Grayson County and there is talk of expanding our local jail," he says.&nbsp; "All of this in spite of declining crime rates. It is time to stop feeding the prison-industrial complex. I believe the goal of the justice system should be to empty out spaces in the jails and prisons &#8211; not to fill every available space!"</p>
<p>Of course, the system of mass incarceration creates a caste system by stamping the scarlet F of "Felon" on those released, no matter how many years of their lives are wasted in cages. Deaton favors restoring rights, including voting rights, for people convicted of nonviolent felonies.</p>
<p>Charlottesville has a chance to give the death penalty in Virginia a big push toward the door, which would help the United States and the world along that path. As Charlottesville only elects Democrats (and packs the full range of great to awful candidates into that one party) the election for Deaton is effectively the June 11th primary. Anyone in Charlottesville can vote in that primary, without swearing any loyalty to any party. Turnout will be low. Anyone's vote could make the difference.</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/109565/primary-power-cville-could-help-kill-death-penalty-june-turn-out#comments_BreakingNewsFeatureddavid swansondeath penaltysteve deatonEssaysThu, 09 May 2013 17:14:39 +0000Hook Contributor109565 at http://www.readthehook.comDeaton: Candidate calls for moratorium on death penalty prosecutionshttp://www.readthehook.com/109300/deaton-candidate-calls-moratorium-death-penalty-prosecutions
<p>Calling the death penalty "barbaric," Steve Deaton, candidate for commonwealth's attorney in Charlottesville, wants a moratorium on prosecutions that could lead to death row.</p>
<p>"It's something I've been thinking about a long time," says Deaton. "I'm surprised no one brought it up&#8211; it's so out of character for Charlottesville."</p>
<p>Actually, City Council did pass a resolution calling for a death penalty moratorium in the state in 2000 that gained no traction in the General Assembly. And no one has been sentenced to death in Charlottesville since 1905, when <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/94206/cover-halloween-mystery-99-years-later-mccue-murder">former mayor Sam McCue was hanged </a>for the murder of his wife Fannie.</p>
<p>Deaton also objects to the threat of the death penalty to convince suspects to plead guilty to life in prison. "It shouldn't be used as a bargaining chip," he says. "I think it's horrendous to use the threat of the death penalty."</p>
<p>He cites as an example the murderers of Jayne McGowan, the 26-year-old who was slain in her St. Clair Avenue home in 2007. Cousins William Douglas Gentry, Jr. and Michael Stuart Pritchett were charged with capital murder and pleaded guilty in an agreement under which the prosecution said it would not seek the death penalty.</p>
<p>Steve Northup, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, points to Virginia cases in which innocent people have been threatened with the death penalty and pled guilty to avoid it, such as the <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/82016/cover-norfolk-four-clemency-petition-sits-kaines-desk">Norfolk Four</a>, sailors who made false confessions to a rape and murder to which another man, whose DNA was found at the scene, later admitted committing.</p>
<p>In another notorious capital case, Justin Wolfe's conviction in Northern Virginia was overturned because a witness said he'd been threatened with the death penalty if he didn't name Wolfe.</p>
<p>Northup says he's never heard of a commonwealth's attorney candidate calling for a death penalty moratorium. "I'm delighted," he says.</p>
<p>Incumbent Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman says he has concerns about the death penalty, but thinks a moratorium is more properly led by citizens, the legislature or the governor than by a commonwealth's attorney.</p>
<p>"From the perspective of the commonwealth's attorney," says Chapman, "I have the obligation to enforce all the laws of the commonwealth. It's not possible or appropriate for us to suspend prosecution of certain laws.</p>
<p>"It doesn't mean we wouldn't consider the application in context of our own community," he adds.</p>
<p>Chapman distinguishes between a moratorium on the death penalty and the need to prosecute capital cases. "Capital offenses that carry mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole are perfectly appropriate to prosecute," he says.</p>
<p>Deaton says he's opposed to using capital punishment statutes for any reason.</p>
<p>As for threatening suspects with the death penalty, says Chapman, "That's such an unlikely alternative in our community, it has no leverage. A community like ours is unlikely to return the death penalty."</p>
<p>Dorian Lester, the former Patricia Kluge bodyguard who murdered a jeweler in 1997, is the only capital case that's gone before a jury during Chapman's tenure, and Lester was sentenced to life without parole.</p>
<p>Calling that murder a "coldly rational case," says Chapman, "If capital punishment is not appropriate or likely in a case like that, when is it appropriate?"</p>
<p>Currently eight men are on death row in Virginia. Chapman acknowledges the death penalty is more likely in certain cases&#8211; rural more than urban jurisdictions, a person of color more than a Caucasian, people who are poor or who have mental health issues.</p>
<p>"Reasonable people should question its fairness over time," he says.</p>
<p>"This issue of the death penalty is one of the reasons I'm running," says Deaton. He'd also like more transparency and a citizens advisory committee for the commonwealth's attorney office.</p>
<p>The commonwealth's attorney makes the decision whether to prosecute a case as first- or second-degree murder, felony murder or capital murder. "I don't think any one person should be sitting there deciding these important issues by himself without citizen feedback," declares Deaton, who was city prosecutor until Chapman unseated him in 1993.</p>
<p>Deaton also has proposed making <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/109175/disorderly-conduct-deaton-proposes-new-pot-possession-charge">marijuana possession a disorderly conduct charge</a> rather than the current penalty that can have "draconian collateral consequences."</p>
<p>Deaton and Chapman will face off in the June 11 Democratic primary&#8211; although Deaton still doesn't have his paperwork filed with the city registrar's office. He has until March 28.</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/109300/deaton-candidate-calls-moratorium-death-penalty-prosecutions#comments_BreakingNewsFeatureddave chapmandeath penaltysteve deatonNewsTue, 19 Mar 2013 16:31:41 +0000lisa109300 at http://www.readthehook.comDisturbing legacy: Race still affects Virginia's death penaltyhttp://www.readthehook.com/107039/disturbing-legacy-race-still-affects-virginias-death-penalty
<p><strong>By King Salim Khalfani and Stephen A. Northup</strong></p>
<p>According to the most recent polling data, public support for the death penalty is at its lowest level in decades. Four states have ended capital punishment since 2007, and strong abolition efforts are underway in a number of other states.</p>
<p>So where is Virginia in this current national debate?</p>
<p>Virginia has a long and dark history with the death penalty. The first execution in the New World took place here in 1608 when Captain George Kendall was executed in Jamestown for spying. Throughout its history, Virginia has executed more than 1,300 people, more than any other state. Virginia has executed more women and the youngest children of any state. Since the resumption of capital punishment in the late 1970s following a <em>de facto</em> moratorium imposed by the courts, Virginia has executed 109 people, second only to Texas.</p>
<p>The average time between conviction and execution in Virginia is less than eight years, by far the shortest in the nation. Since the 1970s, 140 persons convicted and sentenced to death in the U.S. have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence; the 140 spent an average of 10 years on death row. Many of these victims of injustice&#8211; had they been convicted in Virginia&#8211; would have been executed before evidence of their innocence came to light.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding Virginia's rush to judgment in its capital cases, one innocent Virginian&#8211; <a href="http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?031+ful+HB2662">Earl Washington</a>&#8211; was released from death row in 1994 following his conviction and death sentence. And just last year, a federal judge vacated the conviction and death sentence of another Virginian&#8211; Justin Wolfe&#8211; because of misconduct by prosecutors at his trial. The judge also found that Wolfe was innocent of the murder-for-hire for which he was convicted.</p>
<p>While facts like these should be sufficient to cause any concerned citizen to question why Virginia chooses to persist in its use of capital punishment, we want to focus on one aspect of Virginia's use of the death penalty that is perhaps the most disturbing of all&#8211; the role played by race.</p>
<p>Without question, it's the single most salient factor in determining who is executed and who is not. For example, between October 1908 and March 1962, of the 236 people executed by Virginia, 201 were black males, 34 were white males, and one, Virginia Christian, was a 17 year-old black female. In February 1951, Virginia executed eight men in a 72-hour period. All eight were black, and seven (known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinsville_Seven">Martinsville Seven</a>) were executed for the rape of a white woman.</p>
<p>A number of studies have confirmed the significant racial disparity in the application of capital punishment. A 2003 report by Amnesty International entitled "Death by Discrimination&#8211; The Continuing Role of Race in Capital Cases" documented significant racial disparities in the race of persons who have been executed (predominately people of color); the race of victims of crimes for which death sentences are handed down (predominantly white); the race of prosecutors who seek the death penalty (overwhelmingly white); and the race of juries that return death verdicts (mostly white).</p>
<p>A report published in 2000 concluded that although Virginia's capital justice system is not as overtly racist as it was in previous times, "race continues to be a significant factor in capital sentencing" in Virginia. Among the report's conclusions based on an analysis of the 88 post-1976 Virginia executions that had taken place as of 2000 were the following:</p>
<p>1) In cases of rape/murder, the probability that the offender will be sentenced to death is about 19 percent if the victim is black and about 42 percent if the victim is white. 2) Blacks who rape and murder white victims are more than four times more likely to be sentenced to death than blacks who rape and murder black victims. 3) In robbery murders, a death sentence was more than three times more likely if the victim was white than if the victim was black.</p>
<p>It's no coincidence that the states with the heaviest use of capital punishment are located exclusively in the South, with its shameful history of slavery, lynchings, and Jim Crow. Fortunately, the worst of these practices are things of the past. Unfortunately, their legacy continues in some present day practices, including the use of the death penalty. It's time for Virginia to bring this shameful history to a close.<br />~<br /><em>Khalfani directs the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP. Northup directs Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.</em></p>
http://www.readthehook.com/107039/disturbing-legacy-race-still-affects-virginias-death-penalty#comments_BreakingNewsFeatureddeath penaltyearl washingtonEssaysSun, 26 Aug 2012 17:45:34 +0000Hook Contributor107039 at http://www.readthehook.comSnap: Death penalty protest on High Streethttp://www.readthehook.com/67551/snap-death-penalty-protest-high-street
<!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><div class="captionLeftLandscape"><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/news-deathpenaltyprotestors.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-33344" title="news-deathpenaltyprotestors" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/news-deathpenaltyprotestors-325x213.jpg" alt="news-deathpenaltyprotestors" width="325" height="213" /></a><strong>Protesters gathered Thursday in front of the Charlottesville Circuit Courthouse.</strong><br />
<small>PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER<br />
</small></div>
<p>Citizens unhappy about the then-impending execution of convicted murderer Darick Walker gathered on High Street on May 20 with signs. Despite their pleas, the state of Virginia carried out the execution at 9 o' clock that night, fulfilling the sentence Walker received for killing Richmonders Stanley Beale and Clarence Threat. "Walker invaded his victims’ homes by kicking down their front doors, and then, in the presence of their families, mercilessly shooting each victim multiple times," Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli wrote in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of Mr. Beale and Mr. Threat."</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/67551/snap-death-penalty-protest-high-street#comments_BreakingNewsCrime/JusticeSnap o' the Daydeath penaltyMon, 24 May 2010 18:17:39 +0000hawes67551 at http://www.readthehook.com